Antebellum
by Pandastacia
Summary: AU / Fire had burned away her old life and made her anew; he'd spent his whole life in a shadow. Back to back, they fight their battles, but the war never ends.
1. PART ONE : Corrosion

**title:** Antebellum  
**PART ONE OF THREE ::** Corrosion  
**Dedication:** To Paige, who said (paraphrased) to go forth and write, and Mars, who said she'd never forgive me if I didn't.  
**Music: **Up In The Air by 30 Seconds To Mars; The Phoenix by Fall Out Boy  
**Notes:** Demonhunting!verse.  
**Notes2:** Also, I know I'm a horrible updater, but this one is all planned out (and see the dedication).**  
**

* * *

Sakura Haruno didn't know many things about Sasuke Uchiha the first time they met.

The day Kakashi brought him by her training room marked the fourth anniversary of her parents' deaths. The Spawned had burned them in a house fire so bright that it had looked like a second sunset, more gold and ruby than the sun itself. She'd seen the blaze before the smoke from a full mile off on her way home from an afternoon at Ino's. The house had nearly been engulfed by the time she got there, spun into an inferno by the hypnotic and frenzied dancing of the demons outside.

All she could do was _watch_ and _listen_. She had seen the prone forms stapled into the glass of the bay window in the living room. The back of her mother's head was a mess of blonde hair and matted blood, she remembered, and her father's body was unnaturally curled against the pane until his head met his heels. They didn't answer her cries, and they didn't wake up, even when the glass melted into them.

She'd observed everything from the street, held back by neighbors that asked her to leave, begged her to stop screaming, told her it would be okay even as she watched the forms, black like coal and red as embers, leap through tongues of flame and wielding blazing whips.

The police had sent her to counselors when she'd cried about the spikes and fangs and open sores with bubbling and seething pungent liquid that burned everything it touched. They'd brought out the prescription pad for sleeping pills even as they nodded, said, "Yes, yes. I'm sorry for your loss. And how has school been recently? Trouble with classmates?"

Thankfully, the League had had its fingers in all sorts of pastries, looking for people who could see to fill their ranks, and they'd sent Kakashi to collect her.

That night had been the first time she'd seen what evil looked like, and she'd been alone in her fear. She would make it face the same helplessness she had felt that night.

She'd been in the middle of practicing the newest symbols when the door had opened. In an instant, she'd looked towards it with her hand reaching for her katana and shifting her weight into her heels without a second thought.

A boy a little bit taller than her walked through the door, head low and hands deep in his pockets like he was searching for loose change. Sakura stood up to her full height and looked him square in the eyes. He was probably fourteen or fifteen, just like her, but she had never seen him before during her random explorations of HQ or in the dining hall, but she'd seen enough of his kind, with their fine black hair and red eyes, to know what he was: an Uchiha.

She supposed the way she thought about it made his family seem like a rare and exquisite breed. The Uchiha were a clan known not only for their talent with symbols and bow but the ability to ignite their enemies and fan flames into destruction, not too unlike their insignia. Once, when she'd just begun training, she'd seen one of their elders on the League's Council, her back steepled with age, perform the New Year ritual, twisting and weaving a powerful rhythm out of fire into a sigil with no more than a paper fan, its fragile charcoal-covered edge set on fire. It had pulsed, a heartbeat made of light and deep lines of ash outlined on the floor, and Sakura had _felt_ it.

She had been entranced, changed; awe had settled into her, bringing with it the yearning to reach that level. Perhaps Kakashi wasn't wrong to worry that she was overdoing it by practicing every day she wasn't able to move, but everyone had seen the fruits of her labor.

Now, she stared at this strange boy, hair slicked back as if he spent all of his time running his fingers through it. He'd probably lived and trained in the clan compound for the past however many years of his life, hidden from other League families – and the likes of her.

Sakura wondered what it was like, to grow up learning to fight. He probably had years of experience on her. The idea on its own lit a small fire of envy in her. At least, she comforted herself, he couldn't have actually _fought_ one of the Spawned yet.

Her teacher leaned against the doorway, giving her more than a sneaking suspicion of why he'd interrupted her practice. His smile was hidden beneath his mask, but she could see the crinkle of skin at the corner of his eyes. "Sakura Haruno, this is Sasuke."

"Uchiha," her mouth said.

His eyes flicked towards her, two commas motionless around his pupils, and a shiver went down her spine. "Haruno."

She'd heard rumors about him; being best friends with Ino Yamanaka, the heir to her clan and the only friend Sakura had in both her old and new life, made it difficult to be in the dark about any of the words whispered in nearly empty hallways.

"Apparently, the Uchiha head has two sons," Ino had said around a mouthful of rice. "The older brother's Itachi. He's, like, the strongest fighter of our generation. No one can compare to him. I heard he defeated his father in a spar within five minutes – when he was our age."

Sakura had wow-ed like she'd been expected to, though it was half-hearted. At that point, she'd only been at Headquarters for a few weeks. She hadn't known what a spar was or how strength "worked", for a lack of a better word. It made sense that it was impressive, she supposed, defeating one's father. She settled for taking another bite of her ginger-glazed salmon instead of commenting.

Ino had that determined glint in her eyes. "He has a younger brother who is our age. Sasuke. I haven't heard much about him."

Blinking, Sakura tilted her head. "Yet."

"Yet," the blonde had agreed before turning the topic to someone named Kurenai-sensei who was apparently pregnant.

Last year, though, her best friend'd fixed her blue eyes on Sakura's face. "Remember the night the alarm went off last week?"

Sakura had nodded.

Ino's lips had barely moved as she continued. Sakura'd had to lean forward just to catch her words. Her voice was grim as she said, "That was Itachi – he ran away."

She'd nodded judiciously as Sakura's jaw nearly dropped. Maybe she wasn't born into this life, and certain people wouldn't associate her because of the taint, but if there was anything she'd learned outside of her lessons, it was this: The only thing less honorable than entering the life was leaving it.

It was a family thing, like owning a company or a medal from some long dead relative that meant something deep to the bone. Casting it off wasn't really an option because it wasn't an inheritance that you could keep in a safe or on your desk to look at whenever you feel sentimental. She bit her lip. Maybe some would consider it a prison sentence of sorts.

As far as she knew, they'd never caught him. Ino didn't talk about it anymore, having moved onto much juicier news, but Sakura found herself considering what would make someone want to leave this life, enchanting and dangerous all at once. She'd known something else before, and the was faint and smudged in comparison to the distinct vividness of this secret world, hidden just underneath the reality most people were stuck in.

Who would willingly go there?

His brother couldn't provide her any of those answers, even though he seemed reluctant to be sharing this room with her. His gaze wasn't disdainful, but he wasn't moving away from the door. Kakashi had to push him forward.

"We're sparring partners. I _guess_."

Sakura hm-ed. "What can you do?"

A fire seemed to light in his eyes, and his teeth flashed at her, dangerous, cunning, and cocky, as he said, "Why don't you find out?"

She tilted her head and considered him, twirling a strand of pink hair around her index finger. There was a quiver of arrows on his back and a bow hooked to its carrier. A fan and what looked like a pencil stuck out of a belt loop and pocket, respectively, but she knew better.

She wanted to know how good he was.

She held her katana in front of her body, blade capped so that the worst it could do was bruise. "Don't hold back."

He didn't smile, then, but he smirked as he came at her, whipping his bow out simultaneously. "Only if you don't."

As Kakashi turned away and closed the door behind him, Sakura thought she heard him say, "This is going to go well."

* * *

.

.

.

* * *

Seven months later, they're breathing hard, staring at each other from across the training room. They smelled strongly of sweat and blood; there was a bruise on Sasuke's face that hadn't been there before hand, and Sakura could've sworn that her favorite katana hadn't had that scratch on it when they'd walked into the room. The right leg of Sasuke's pants was half a foot shy of his ankle, showing a small trickle of blood, while Sakura was missing the midriff of her shirt somehow.

Within a week of their meeting, Sasuke and Sakura had been moved to a bigger room after they'd broken all four walls of her one-person room in the middle of a spar. Kakashi had tried to get permission for them to train outside, but the best the Council would do for two students in training was give them something that looked like the gym Sakura had had physical education in when she was five.

Still, it was an improvement.

"Again?" Sasuke was the one to ask, though it wasn't really a question. What other option, after all, did they have?

That was the question.

Sakura groaned, massaging the muscle on the back of her neck. It was cramping up, she was bored, and she wanted to know this: when would they be getting their first kill?

Meanwhile, Kakashi was sitting in a space in the wall ten, fifteen feet up with a glass panel between him and the fighting. From his vantage point, he had seen the two fight. Even though seven months seemed like a long time, the changes in the two were profound. Personally, he thought they balanced each other out because while Sasuke was good at long to middle distance fighting, he couldn't deny that Sakura more than gave him a run for his money when she brought the fight up close.

Given, if they could stop arguing, they would be even better off than they were now. In that regard, they'd completely failed his expectations.

Sakura squinted up, and seeing that the orange book had been brought out again, called up, "Kakashi, isn't there something else we could do? I can already predict his movements."

"And she's slow," Sasuke drawled, sliding an arrow into place and shooting vertically in a fit of pique and boredom.

She punched him in the shoulder, making him wince and bat her hand away. "Am not."

He raised an eyebrow at her, and Sakura barely resisted grabbing him by the jaw and prove to him that he was underestimating her.

"Children, children, you are being -." Their teacher tensed as he jumped up, just in time for Sasuke's arrow to land right where his knee had been.

Sakura slipped a hand through her folded arms and held it out to Sasuke for a high-five. They could get along for _some_ things, especially when it involved an attempt to either outsmart their trainer or get his dirty so-called literature away from him. Sometimes it involved both. In any case, they were incompatible on most things. She snorted.

Kakashi vaulted over the glass and landed on his feet silently. He had just opened his mouth to tell them off, Sakura presumed, but he paused. There was a voice coming from the earpiece he wore. She couldn't pick out a word it said, seeing as it sounded like a little mosquito buzzing by his messy silver hair. She exchanged impatient looks with Sasuke as they waited for Kakashi to stop nodding and the voice to go quiet.

He turned to them and they looked expectantly at him. "Well," he said, tucking his book under his arm, "it seems like this is your lucky day."

.

"'Lucky', _my ass_," fumed Sakura as she dashed down the dirty alley. She'd already slipped in several puddles and lost track of Sasuke – and they'd only been on a hunt for an hour! From her reading, they were after the easiest kind of demon, one that generally stayed away from humans. They were more pests than anything else, like demonic termites, and she hadn't even been able to stab it with her new iron-bladed katana yet.

Of course, their bites were still fatal…

The September air was fresh, a slight wind blowing past her as she looked at dark corners for her partner.

"Sasuke." His name came out of her mouth as a hiss as she pressed the voice piece deeper into her ear, hoping that it would magically allow him to hear her. There was a sound of static, and she glared past the dumpster she'd last seen the cat-like demon run by.

"What?" Sakura jumped when his voice came close and he landed next to her from on top of some storage container.

"This isn't working." They were both severely out of breath as they jogged towards the dead end, both much more worse for wear than the cat-demon.

"Really? And what gave you that idea?"

"When you shot me."

She threw her arms out, nearly missing a rusty motorcycle that someone must've left out in the rain and cold for too long. "You got in my way! I almost _had it_."

All he gave her was an eyebrow raise and, "Because that would've been the end of things."

"Then you should've put the damn sigil down and -."

Kakashi cut in from his observation spot on top of the main offices for the storage center, his tone more crisp and distinctly less amused than usual. "Guys, the Spawned is halfway down one alley over. Maybe you should have your little married spat after you've sent the thing back to whence it came?"

"Like I'd marry him," were Sakura's parting words before she put a bit more effort into her pacing.

"I'd rather die first," Sasuke muttered, passing her.

"That can be arranged," Sakura said, flexing her fists.

She could see the demon then, its skeletal spine curved in a gross mockery of the actual animal and covered in leathery skin that showed every single bone in its body, but so could Sasuke. He already had an arrowed fitted to his string. It was like he'd forgotten the last time either of them had tried to shoot the damn thing, it had phased through the wall and appeared elsewhere.

"Stop!" she called, just managing to catch his bow before he'd let it go. It missed the demon by a long shot, scaring it off.

He swung around before she could run after it. "What was that for? I almost had it!"

His grip was painful on her forearm, sliding towards a tight hold on her wrist. Trying to tug it away before he could twist her arm, she gasped, "Because that worked the first time!"

"It would've worked."

She tried to be light when she said, "That quote – insanity being trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We need to try… something new."

Her wrist was still tight in his hand, but the pressure of his nail against her pulse was a little lighter. "Meaning?"

Sakura looked around their surroundings. The damned thing, as stupid as it was, had learned their weaknesses; it seemed perfectly confident running right across Sasuke's path and staying yards away from her. She could hear something. It was the vague sound of nails scratching against the steel doors before a hiss and skittering down concrete.

Interesting.

Turning to face him, she smiled and forcefully pulled her arm out of his. "Meaning I have a plan."

.

Sakura held the charcoal between her sweaty fingers. Nerves tickled her gut and drew her breath out in a raspy shudder. Almost worse was the taste of her pre-hunt protein bar on the back of her mouth. She flinched when she heard the clack of nails and smelled the rot that accompanied the hell spawn.

She was utterly reliant on Sasuke's ability to use her katana and it scared her.

"Don't forget to skewer it, not slash it. That would mean we have two parts to exorcize. Oh, and leave me a decent amount of room to write the right symbols," she'd told him as they searched the storage area. "Use both hands – if you pull any fancy one-handed crap with it and end up damaging the blade, I'll cut you."

"I'm well aware," he'd said. "Do you know what symbols to use?"

She'd leveled him with a look. "Do you take me for an amateur?"

"Yes."

Sighing, she'd lightly tapped him on the forehead. He'd tensed at the movement. For a moment, she looked at him in concern, but decided to leave him be. It was probably nothing, after all.

Sakura'd gotten on her knees and traced with a finger the two sigils necessary to send the demon back to hell on the cement. "Is that good, your majesty?"

Sasuke had shrugged. "Close enough. No time to train you differently now."

From her spot around the corner, she watched Sasuke carefully approach the demon, blocking its swipes with the flat of her precious blade until it was backed into the door. The iron in the steel caused the creature to screech even as Sasuke stabbed it.

Jumping from her spot, Sakura quickly wrote the required marks on its body despite its wriggling and flailing limbs. As soon as the last stroke was completed, it stopped moving.

Its skin shriveled, and when the wind hailed towards them, it stank of graves and blood and a special smell that Sakura strongly suspected came from hell itself.

She threw up on the spot, and thought she could hear Sasuke do the same.

In her ear, she heard Kakashi say, "Walk it off, walk it off."

.

Standing in the training room the next morning, Kakashi was the one waiting for once. He was late, though not as much as usual, which made him wonder when he'd trained his two protégé to take promptness lightly.

He checked his watch and sighed, scratching his head. "Those two are going to be the death of me… If they survive long enough."

He chuckled humorlessly. At least their first hunt had been a success in more ways than one.

Opening up his hand, he saw the miniscule and barely legible notes he'd left himself to discuss with them individually.

_Sakura – shogi, chess, symbol_

_Sasuke – suicide drills, blades, meditation_

A quick analysis of them had Kakashi speculating whether they would be catch on.

Maybe he was their teacher and should be teaching them things in the training room, but if there was anything Minato had taught him, it was that you learn best in action and from those you work with. In a way, he thought, it was like a training exercise in trust – that you know they're so good at something that you would spend time with them and let them in and ask for help in a world where honor and confidence are one's greatest defense. You must let them in and see your weaknesses so you may strengthen them and learn that you don't have to be afraid of those you work with. In return, you teach them because they're the ones watching your back while you look ahead.

"You can't be strong on your own in this business," Kakashi said aloud.

He didn't know how to do that with these two: a girl who had built up her shields so high and thick that she couldn't climb over them, and a boy who had been isolated the second his defense had walked away, opening him to a barrage out of external forces.

They got somewhere yesterday, but he wasn't sure that it wasn't in spite of themselves and not out of willingness or an epiphany.

It was when he'd given in and pulled his book out that he heard voices on the other side of the door.

"I landed the death blow, so it's my kill."

"I set you up, so it's _my_ kill."

"You were the one who missed the shot in the first place!"

"And you were the one who accidentally shot me."

Kakashi shook his head. Maybe he was being too optimistic.

* * *

.

.

.

* * *

They generally don't sit in the dining hall together. In fact, he generally doesn't eat in HQ at all. Sasuke told Sakura once of the dining room he shared with his mother and father, the white walls with the glow of candlelight flickering as they chewed. She asked him once what they talked about while they ate.

He'd given her a look. "Can't talk and eat at the same time, right?"

Sakura had rolled her eyes.

Kakashi, though, had made one meal together each day as part of their "training". He didn't say how he'd follow up on them, but his two students secretly agreed he had eyes everywhere. In any case, they stuck with it.

This evening had been after a hunt. There was still the stench of ash all over them, making everyone around them give a wide berth. She tilted her head and watched him pick at his fish as if he expected its pieces to create something new – perhaps a less well-done steak?

"What's eating you?" She snickered at her pun, but he just kept tearing the meat from the bone morosely. Maybe there was a shrug there, a curl in his shoulder that she prodded across the table with her finger.

He brushed her off. "Nothing, it's a… family thing."

Sakura set her fork down and beamed at him. "Oh, I know _all_ about those. Basically an expert."

All she got was a dubious look, although a sigh soon followed. "My parents want to…" Sasuke mumbled the last bit.

Nesting her chin in her hand, she gave him a look – eyebrows high and very much amused. "Sorry, I didn't catch that, so you're going to have to say that a little bit louder. Maybe… announce it?" She shook her head. "I mean, _annunciate_."

He stuck a piece of fish in his mouth and watched her stare at him, a bored expression on his face. Her gaze followed the twitch of his throat as he swallowed before returning to his face expectantly.

Groaning, he ran his fingers through his hair. "Fucking a, my parents… they're…" He kept pausing, ruffling his bangs, and Sakura couldn't help it. She tapped her fingers impatiently before leaning forward until she could smell the fish on his breath. When was he going to actually say it? At this rate, his parents would be dead before he even finished his sentence.

God, _she'd_ be dead, though the question would be whether she'd died of old age or boredom first.

"Yes?"

"They're meeting with the Inuzuka clan today. They have a daughter."

"And a son – I've heard he's our age. Don't they do things with dogs?"

"They train dogs and fight alongside them, if that's what you meant."

"… Yeah, let's go with that. Anyway – what does it matter, what their children are?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth, a small but sharp sound that made her tense. "Arranged marriage."

She stared at him. "We're, like, sixteen."

"Speak for yourself," Sasuke muttered. His hair would start giving off static electricity any second now. "I'm still fifteen."

"Almost sixteen."

He waved it off. When she tilted her head the right way, he looked older than she was. She wouldn't tell him he looked a little… fragile. Because he'd probably try to kill her with the fish's spinal cord.

"Well, I don't know what that'd be like," Sakura said, settling back into her chair. Her eyes fixed on the fireplace behind him, little sparks jumping off flames only to snap in mid air and become nothing. "'Snot like I have parents. Or a clan."

Even though she wasn't looking at him, she could see him staring at her in disbelief. "Do you ever think about what comes out of your mouth?"

She shifted her line of sight to him. "Am I supposed to?"

Instead of an answer, Sasuke smirked, and raising his bowl to his mouth, started eating in earnest.

Wrapping a lock of hair around her finger, she bit her lip as she considered him. There was a lightness to his eyes that she couldn't attribute to the lamps lining the long table they sat. It made her feel a bit better, so she grabbed his wrist as he made to grab a second dinner roll.

"Hrm?"

She grinned widely at him, which drew a confused expression from him. "No worries," she said cheerfully, grasping his hand tightly. "I'll crash the wedding, save you from the bride. We could..."

Sakura tried to think about how things usually went, according to Ino's explanations of the latest romantic film at the movie complex. "We could run off into the sunset together. I think that's how these things go."

Sasuke blinked before squinting at her, testing her forehead with the back of the hand she wasn't holding. She swatted him away this time. "Really?" he asked.

"What are friends for?"

They looked at each other, oblivious to the continuing conversations around them, before turning back to their food.

"Why are they so interested in your love life, now, anyway? Is there something… magical, demonic about being almost sixteen?"

His face clouded over and he stabbed the last dinner roll on the communal platter with his butter knife, lips pulled tight into a near invisible line. "I wasn't the heir before."

Not knowing what to say, her immediate reaction was to reach around the lamp between them and mess up his hair further.

"… Sakura?"

Looking to him, she waited for the reprimand that came when anyone but him touched his hair. "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

* * *

And thank _you_ for reading!


	2. PART TWO : Crisis

**title:** Antebellum  
**PART TWO ::** Crisis  
**Dedication:** To all of you for not hunting me down for being lazy busy - I swear I'll get around to answering all of your reviews from last time. Special thanks to Rhea for beta-ing this and catching all the things that miss my attention as I scramble to pull something up. Love you, bb. 3  
**Notes:** Demonhunting!verse.

SORRY I FAIL AT UPDATING. If you feel cheated, remember that I feel guilty. Good things take time? At least… I hope you all consider this a good thing…

I wrote this in one go – I got _sunburn_ writing this and now I'll be 129837x tanner on my back than front.

There is only one more piece to this short adventure thing, and my goal is to have this all finished before summer ends. Maybe even before the end of next month. I know, impressive, right?

…

Sorry.

* * *

From the dark equipment shed, two people stared into the group in the middle of the field.

"Okay, you get Inuzuka and Uzumaki, and I'll take Sabaku and… Okay, does Tenten have a last name?"

"Where are we going to put the bodies?"

Small shrug followed by a teasing laugh. "Don't have any experience, _Uchiha_?"

"Shut up."

"_Sorry_, I thought you were the master of everything. Oh well. I'm sure you'll think of something."

Sasuke ignored her jibe, instead observing the rest of their team. Sakura followed his gaze.

They'd been partners for almost three years now, and things were comfortable. He knew her strengths and she his, covering for each other as needed and being there in a pinch, whether it was on the field or in the League's more formal and bureaucratic occasions. She threw things when he was acting all up himself and he made her leave the black hole that was her room every so often. Of course, he generally did so by setting fire to whatever textbook she'd gotten deep into and leading her on a merry chase around HQ, but it was okay. She always got her revenge anyway.

As close as she was to Ino, Sasuke was the closest thing she had to a best friend. She'd never expected that, and wondered if he felt the same.

Still, seventeen had only meant… this. Sakura wrinkled her nose.

Kakashi and Kurenai stood to the side of the rest of their new team. She knew Uzumaki and Sabaku had been training under Kakashi as well, though their teacher had never told them so himself. It was as if his mask sealed his lips and filed his secrets away.

"What do you know about them?" Sakura asked, jerking her head in the direction of the golden duo. "I mean, I've heard rumors about Uzumaki – people think that his parents summoned one of the Spawned to save his life when he was a baby and now he's half-possessed."

"Bullshit," Sasuke said lowly. "Our fathers were partners and so were our mothers. Minato and Kushina would never – _could_ never do that."

He paused. "Dead-last and I hung out for a while when we were kids. Maybe he's supernaturally obnoxious and an idiot, but he's hardly demon spawn."

"So friendly." Sakura tilted her head, considering. "So why the gossip?"

Her partner snorted. He leaned deeper into the doorframe. "Why do you think? People want to explain away his strength, even though Minato Namikaze is one of the best in the League at hand-to-hand combat."

She bit the corner of her bottom lip. "Is Uzumaki strong?"

There was a gleam in Sasuke's eyes that made her so tense that she nearly grabbed for her katana from where it was strapped to her side. "And fast."

They were quiet for several seconds before Sasuke turned his head to look at her. "But we're still better – harder, faster, stronger, _and_ smarter."

Sakura smirked. "But of course."

She was looking forward to proving it.

"Anyway, Temari Sabaku is Gaara's older sister," Sakura mused.

"Terrifying redhead, slightly vertically challenged?"

She laughed as her hand shot out and ruffled his hair. He protested and pulled away. "Used to be small – like you."

He lifted an eyebrow at her. "You can't talk to anyone about height unless it has to do with lack thereof."

"Hey! I'm not _short_, I'm _average._ Anyway, Gaara's probably taller than you now."

Sasuke muttered something that sounded along the lines of, "We'll see about that," and all Sakura could do was laugh.

"What are you going to do?" she teased, pinching his cheek. "Put yourself on a rack and stretch yourself until your bones pop out of their joints? Tsunade-shishou would probably lay you out to dry in the sun. I'd get popcorn and share it with Gaara while we watch you suffer."

He swatted her hand away. "Anyway, Sabaku is good with fans and apparently a tactical genius on top of that – plays shogi with Nara and beats him on occasion."

Sakura blinked, tilting her head to the side. Kakashi had introduced her to shogi and Shikamaru a year or so ago – she still played with him every so often, but the new teams meant that their schedules with training and missions often conflicted. She'd hoped they would end up on the same team, but apparently not. Sasuke, sadly, wasn't interested in learning, let alone playing with her.

Hopefully, though, Temari would offer her a… challenge.

Sakura elbowed Sasuke until she had room to lean through the doorway and see better. "Inuzuka and Tenten trained with Kurenai – her husband is from one of the old clans. She only has one team because she was just off from having a baby when they were putting us in pairs and the Council didn't want to overwhelm her – something like that, anyway. Apparently, she has some power of compulsion."

"Tenten is kind of like you," Sasuke said thoughtfully.

Sakura sent him a dirty look. "No one is like me."

Sasuke stared at her for a second before looking away, the closest he ever got to rolling his eyes. "Of course not. No one else can be quite as annoying and high-strung as you. Anyway, if you'd let me _finish_, I was saying that at least her past is like yours. Orphaned in a demon attack, adopted when the Council figured out she could see the Spawned. She's also proficient in weapon strategy."

"If only they'd put us together," Sakura said, eyes glazing over. "Sparring partners and everything, since we do the same things. We would be unstoppable."

Glaring at her, Sasuke snapped, "Exactly. You are the exact same sort of specialty – which would be useless in the long run. What are you going to do with the Spawned, slice them into pieces until your arms fall off and wait for them to regenerate so you can cut them again? You would miss balance. Same reason why they didn't put me and Inuzuka together."

Sakura looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. He looked affronted, arms crossed over his chest and slouching on the dark wooden doorframe. A smile tugged on her lips, threatening to stretch her face inappropriately, given the situation. Was he _jealous_?

She punched him lightly on the arm, her eyes light. "It's okay, Sasuke. I don't want anyone but you."

He didn't smile, exactly, but she thought she could see his forehead smooth out. "Yeah, well… We're going to have to deal with those morons now. I dunno about you, but I don't fancy having to hunt primary level demons for the rest of my life."

"So we'll have to put up with them."

"Yeah."

She grinned mischievously "Well, I trained you well enough – just have to deal with four new people. I mean, it _did_ take three years, but it can't be any harder than you."

Sasuke opened his mouth – probably to insult her right back – but that was when Kakashi called over, his drawl mocking, "Yo, lovebirds. The longer you take, the more training you'll need before your first team mission."

Everyone else, as if they hadn't noticed that the last part of their team hadn't been standing apart, turned to stare: pairs of brown and blue eyes hooking into them through the summer chill.

Sakura and Sasuke looked at each other, sighed, and made their way towards their new team.

They didn't talk about Inuzuka, mostly because they already knew too much.

* * *

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* * *

At eighteen, her lips were bruised and she was certain that the skin on her hips would be colorful in the morning from where large hands had gripped her tightly.

She was still slightly dazed, eyes too large and fixated on Sasuke. He looked like he had a different reason for appearing as shocked as he was able. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly; she could almost see the words crowding up his throat.

Sasuke rarely talked around most people, but when he did, he was never at a loss for words.

Sakura didn't know what she was supposed to say. There was probably some sort of protocol for things like this – something that made some sort of sense – but every intelligent thought streamed around her nerves in the middle of neural synapses. It was the only explanation for her mouth hijacking her brain in the face of all rational thought.

"What the _hell_, Sasuke?"

"'What the hell' is right. What were you doing with Dog Breath?"

"It's called loosening up, Sasuke. You should look it up in a dictionary and try it some time." She sneered back at him, her fingers in tight fists by her side. Her anger felt ugly, but it's nothing compared to being lost in someone else for a brief moment only to suddenly find them gone and lost on your own with your best friend standing in the doorway of a supply closet you had never noticed before. She could still feel a broomstick uncomfortably wedged between her shoulder blades.

"I do loosen up, but at least I don't make it obvious. You didn't need to be so loud about it."

She didn't know the look on his face, jaw stressed until the bone and muscle stood out through his skin. His lips were pulled apart slightly, showing a hint of white teeth like marble stones pulled harshly against each other.

Sakura bit back a sharp laugh into a little bitter gasp. "Like it's a secret – everyone knows what you do. You think those girls keep it to themselves? You can never be a secret, Uchiha – _never_. You might as well make out with them in the middle of the dining hall because no one will ever stop talking about you and you know it. Hypocrite."

She tried to find some air, to stop her laughter, but she couldn't tell whether she's crying or laughing anymore. "You think you can do whatever you want and I'm limited to fighting because you think that's the only thing I know – that I can only be a fighter – but you are _so_ _wrong_."

They'd just gotten back from a mission on the west side of the country – their third as a team and their first against a quaternary level Spawned.

They hadn't been ready for it.

She still remembered the feeling of her mouth going dry when Temari had nearly been cut in half by the creature's claws, the taste of vomit on the back of her throat when she'd seen Tenten's hands bent the wrong way, how she'd screamed until there was no air left in her lungs when Naruto had been thrown against a building and hadn't gotten up. She couldn't recall how they'd gotten back, but there was a faint memory of someone pulling the blond's unconscious body out of her grasp and the red lights above the door to the infirmary's emergency wing.

Half of their team incapacitated and the damn demon just got a one-way ticket back to hell.

Absentmindedly, Sakura felt her fingernails digging into her palms and made herself relax her arms.

Sakura had never barely-won a pyrrhic victory before, so the feeling of being so damn helpless and hopeless held onto her mind tightly. She hadn't known where Sasuke had disappeared to after they got back, so she'd blindly followed Kiba to his room where he shared his stash of booze with her.

Sakura still wasn't quite sure how it had happened. Despite being on the same team for a year now, she'd never spent much time with the Inuzuka, too much loyalty to the Uchiha to breach that particular gulf. It had started out quietly, her partner and his sister's future hanging over them, but the alcohol mixed with blood and the next thing she knew they were talking about his dog and the little kitten she'd gotten the week before her parents had died. After that…

Sakura pushed back the blush that accompanied the thoughts of her nails scraping across his scalp and his hands gripping onto her hair, the taste of his tongue, the way he'd growled when she'd traced his fangs, the confident movement of his hands…

She didn't quite succeed, but she hoped that Sasuke took it as a flush of anger. A small slice of her noted that the alcohol hadn't faded away, that she would probably regret this entire exchange in the morning, but in that moment, she didn't care.

Sasuke started. "I didn't mean it like that. I -."

She cut him off, eyes narrowed. "How else could you have meant it? You can do whatever you want – I don't _care_. Let me do what I want. I'm not hurting _anyone_."

Liar, liar, hummed the voice in the back of her mind that sounded suspiciously like Ino. You're hurting yourself, you're hurting him – you're just _angry_ because you _lost_. You always take it out on him because he's strong enough to take it and isn't afraid of hurting you, waking you up. You get along because you are both _so messed up_ inside, but you think that's okay. How does it feel _now_?

She hated that voice.

"Dog breath is just using you –."

Sakura snorted. "To get back at you? Reality check: not everything's about _you_. I could get married to him and it _still_ won't have a thing to do with you, Uchiha."

She stopped for a second to catch her breath and the train of thought that had derailed itself when she saw his face pale in the light from the hallway. "Actually, it has nothing to do with me and Kiba and everything to do with you."

One of his eyes twitched and she smirked in victory. "Haruno, let me finish."

Sakura crossed her arms and leaned away from the broomstick and into the wall. "Fine."

He took a deep breath and brushed his hair back the way he did whenever he was trying to think carefully. Satisfaction rose in her chest at the thought that he considered her dangerous, a bomb ticking right in front of him. "All I meant was that we have to be careful. There are so many people who don't mean well by my family and, by extension, you, since you're close to me."

Before she could think it thoroughly, Sakura grabbed him by the chin and pulled his face so it was close to hers. She could smell his shampoo with its soft mint undertones and the dustiness of burning charcoal that made her heart clench with its familiarity. Her mind fought its unconscious attempts at comforting. When he winced, she loosened her grip a little and spoke close enough that her breath flowed against his lips. "Kiba is not the enemy, Sasuke. We're not fighting each other – we're fighting _them_. We're a team and we make a _damn_ _good_ one. This isn't about you – it's not even about him. We fight the Spawned for others and not the insipid political battles you seem to think the world revolves around, like your clan. At least Kiba works with us. After today, you should be thankful he was there."

"I am," he said finally, but she could tell he hated that he meant it and she almost wish he hadn't meant a single word that he said.

Sasuke never lied, though.

She let him go and pushed him away to ran from the closet. He let her go. She didn't tell him that maybe it wouldn't have happened at all if he'd been there.

Her hips didn't hurt nearly as much as her heart did.

* * *

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* * *

Sometimes, Sakura would find a place right after a hunt and before a shower to sit on her own and… think.

Sometimes, that was all she could do.

Tired and worn down from the intensity of the focus and the wounds acquired, she could only question the point of the entire exercise.

There was a line she'd once heard or read, about winning a battle, but losing the war, and it felt like it was written for her. Each hunt seemed to be a battle. They won many of them, sent the Spawned back to the plot of hell they'd come from, but it tasted like blood and souls. It seemed there was no end to them. For each one signed away, ten more seemed to appear somewhere else around the world.

Hercules, she scowled, had it easy.

Curled into a ball under a shower of hot water with her clothes still on, she considered what it would be like to spend her entire life like this – fighting other people's battles for them because of her gift just in being able to see the nasty motherfuckers that crawled the earth and scouring its clean dirt as if they belonged there, to fight until they crawled over her defeated body and consumed her before moving on. Other members of the League had children, of course. How else could the clans continue? Women would fight until they were married and then… rest. Watch, wait for their husbands, mourn when they must, only to carry on and raise their children on a diet of vengeance, duty, and hatred.

She laughed softly, bitterly, to herself and wiped someone's blood off with her hand, smearing it across her mouth and watching it drip onto the white plastic shower floor. Nineteen and already thinking about the end or an escape? That was the second rule Kakashi had told her, after, "A person who violates the rules is scum, but a person who abandons their friends is worse than scum": "Think defeat, and you will be."

Still, Sakura couldn't help feeling restless, thinking about what else was laid out there for her. There was nothing quite like fighting, and she loved the adrenaline rush and knowing that Sasuke had her back. It wasn't even just Sasuke anymore, but Naruto, Kiba, Tenten, and Temari. Their own ragtag bunch filled in the gaps in her heart that her parents had left her with.

But after days and nights of successes being closely followed by failure, she didn't know if she could do it forever. The nightmares almost overcame the walls of her mind, crowding out the Sakura Haruno that had trained for years for the opportunity to fight the demons that had killed her parents and cramming it instead with the screams of children she couldn't save.

She wondered if this was how Itachi Uchiha had felt before he'd left, if it was why.

She wondered if anyone else felt this way, if it only made her weak – or worse, if it meant she _was_ weak.

Sakura held her head in her hands and took in a deep breath that sounded even to her own ears like a sob.

The curtain to her shower stall was pushed aside quietly, but she didn't bother looking up until the person turned off the shower and lifted her up.

Sasuke didn't speak as he carried her to his room. All Sakura could do was curl herself into his chest, trying to breathe in deeply, only to lie limply on his bed when he left her there. She didn't struggle as he took her wet clothes off nor did she fight the shivers when the air conditioning kicked in and chilled the droplets of water on her skin. Sasuke pulled one of his shirts over her, but the shivers had morphed into bone-wracking shudders that reverberated through her.

She didn't really do anything except stare at his pale blue wall.

He tugged his blanket out from under her, draping it over Sakura until the only thing anyone could've seen of her was everything above the curve of her nose. Sasuke folded it back and tucked it under her chin. She vaguely remembered someone doing this for her, but she'd been small then and they smelled like vanilla.

Carefully, Sasuke turned her head so that she faced him and swiped the area under her eyes with his thumb. She hadn't realized that she'd been crying.

She watched him walk away from the bed and turn off the overhead lights, a sense of alarm building. He was almost out the door when she managed to say, "Wait."

Sakura was afraid that he hadn't been able to hear her, that he but he turned to look at her, normally blank eyes questioning.

"Could you stay?"

He stared at her momentarily, his head cocked like a sparrow deciding between flight and hopping closer.

"Please?" she added.

To her relief, he nodded.

Before he laid down, he went over to the wall Sakura had been facing. Leaning over, Sasuke pressed a button on the box plugged into the outlet. A light came on, a warm flickering orange like a bonfire.

Sakura chuckled, a rough sound that made her cough. "You have a nightlight, Uchiha?"

"Shut up, Haruno," he said softly before he cautiously laid himself on top of the blankets. She wiggled, shifting herself to make room for him.

She gripped his hand.

For a few minutes, they both returned to silence and Sakura closed her eyes.

She said, "Sasuke?"

Out of the dark came, "Hm?"

"Thank you."

* * *

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* * *

Kakashi was on a long-term mission – some diplomatic exchange to another branch of the League, or some such thing – so Kurenai had made the executive decision to make Sasuke and Sakura sparring partners.

"In order to fight together, you must understand each other as opponents," she'd said. She dropped a bell dangling on a string into each of their hands before closing the door on them. "You have one hour to take the other's bell."

They looked at each other when they heard the click of the lock. "This feels very familiar," Sakura drawled.

Sasuke snorted in response, though she did notice that his lips were pursed together the way he did when he was troubled. He probably did need a spar. They would talk after they both dropped to the ground, entirely spent.

Those were generally the best spars.

She tucked the bell into the pouch on the back of her thigh and saw him do the same.

"Rules?" she asked.

"The usual."

Smirking, she promised, "I won't bite you – unless you ask me to."

Sasuke looked at her sharply but didn't comment as he settled into his stance. "Ready?"

"I was ready before you were born."

She made the first move for once in an attempt to disarm him, darting close enough that she could've reached him with a quick punch. Her first didn't make it, though, as he blocked her forearms with his, set defensively in front of his face. Twisting his arm, he tried to catch her by looping her arm around his and pushing her offense apart, but she rolled through it and kicked at him. It forced him to pull away from her and bring out a kunai, but she knew him. Her hand had begun digging in her pouch for one as soon as he tried to turn her around.

Her eyes gleamed in a dangerous smile, and she could see his light up in response before they headed towards each other to entangle again.

She'd never danced in one of those clubs girls her age went to. Ino'd dragged her there once, but she'd refused to do much more than sit at the bar, take a few shots, and watch. The beat of the bass had controlled her heart, driving it into the rhythm her feet were tapping to and everyone else's bodies moved to. She'd known just by looking that she would feel claustrophobic in such a crowd, perilously uncomfortable with a switchblade hiding in one of her boots.

Sparring with Sasuke was just like her imaginings of being in that mess of people, but it also felt like home. His hands meant to touch, to force, to bruise, to win as they skated over her skin and struggled to find purchase on her arms; his legs sought to unbalance her and send her spilling into his arms like a prize – and that was okay because she tried to break him, too. In any other circumstance, it would sound like abuse, but here?

Here, it made sense.

There was heat in the fight, his breath ghosting across her ear as he reached across her to pull her arm behind her only for her to spin and kick him in the back. It made contact, and she could hear a grunt of pain, but he didn't fall, already rolling into another form in an attempt to destabilize her.

In revenge, she brought the fight back to him, reaching for the closest pressure point her instinct remembered. Sasuke knew that trick though – she'd used them against him so many times – and hit her near her elbow. Sakura hissed as she felt her ulna vibrate beneath her skin. "_Bastard_," she gasped.

He smirked before they reengaged.

Time passed the way it does in the split-second of a blink with all of the movements melding together comfortably like the steps in a waltz even when you can't see one sequence. It simply made so much sense that it flowed without thought. She mostly remembered his skin moving past hers, moments of scalding like he caressed her with a hot poker, and the way their sweat coalesces together when their bodies dance around and through each other. Despite all of her previous relationships, she had never felt any of them to be more intimate than these moments with Sasuke.

There's probably something wrong with her, she concluded as she dodged his fist only to catch a kick with her stomach.

The wind knocked out of her, she barely managed to stay on her feet and block his swings, dodging through muscle memory more than any conscious thought. Just when everything fell into the same pattern again, Sasuke grabbed both of her arms and tugged her so that she was pulled flush against him and her face ran into his chest for a short second.

Talk about close contact, laughed that voice that sounded like Temari.

She tensed, feeling the soft cotton of his shirt drenched with his sweat against her torso. It stuck to him just as she felt imprisoned next to him. Her arms were folded between them, elbows digging into the space between the curves of her hips and waist, while his were wrapped around her.

Was he… hugging her?

Sakura felt slightly disoriented – they were just sparring, and now… Now they were way too close, although not uncomfortably so. Uncomfortable in its comfortableness, if that made any sense. What was going on?

One of Sasuke's arms let her go only to reach for her face and touched her cheek softly for a moment, like he was afraid she'd break. Slowly, his hand returned to her waist. She shuddered as he stroked her side.

"Sakura."

She shivered. Looking up at him, she saw creased forehead, low eyebrows, and dark considering eyes.

"Sasuke…"

Even to her own ears, she sounded breathless. One of her hands reached on autopilot for his back, smoothing down the tail end of his shirt and past his backside. She continued until she was… She tried not to think of it as stroking his thigh.

Without changing most of their position, they dangled the other's bell beside their face.

"Cheater," Sakura said. She kept her eyes trained on his ear, not sure she could look Sasuke in the face without turning red. What was there even to be embarrassed about, she wondered, though she turned to look determinedly at the door and pulled away as inconspicuously as possible. "Guess we have to wait for Kurenai to let us out. I don't –. "

She stopped speaking as he leaned over and nipped at her earlobe. With one swift motion, it was like he had taken his nails to her ribs and pulled them apart, leaving her beating heart exposed and red to them both.

Her head literally spun around, facing him with wide eyes and words failing her as he pulled away.

The door clicked and he turned around, walking with… something more than speed – actual haste.

Sakura stood stock still, watching him and the shirt pasted against the muscles of his back as if hypnotized.

"Sasuke," she started, but she didn't know what she'd intended to say.

He paused at the door.

Without looking back at her, he said through his teeth, "They made the engagement official."

Then he slipped out the door and she dropped to the ground with her hands loose in her lap, listening to his feet pounding against the ground as if he couldn't get far enough away.

* * *

NOTE: Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, the nightlight isn't to say that Sasuke is "afraid of the dark" but that he's afraid of what lies _in_ the dark, which is a rational concern, especially considering what he, Sakura, and the rest of their team does, no?


End file.
